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Friday, June 29, 2007

At the same time District 19 Council Member Ludye Wallace was feuding with David Briley, he was also sparring even more aggressively with Mayoral candidate and Vice Mayor Howard Gentry on Tuesday night over the debate about 9 amendments that some wanted to add to the substitute budget bill. And Mr. Gentry gave it right back to him.

Ludye used some of the balance of speaking time that he received from David Briley to accuse Mr. Gentry, who as Chair controls who speaks, of ignoring some in order to allow bill co-sponsor Rip Ryman to table (and thus, kill) each amendment. Several times during the amendment debate, Ludye stood and challenged Mr. Gentry's handling of the meeting and charged that he was being biased in not allowing amendment supporters to speak.

At one point, Ludye lashed out, "You are not letting members speak. You are trying to prevent the people from doing anything." Finally, Mr. Gentry retorted indignantly to Ludye, "You have been talking all day. You are getting your chance."

After several supporters whom Ludye called introduced their amendments, Mr. Gentry attempted to shut the debate down on a technicality. He told the group that, while Ludye had called the names of some amendment supporters and they were recognized, the last two, Ed Whitmore and Jamie Isabel, had not been called with the expressed purpose of introducing amendments. Ludye protested and attempted to convince the Council to vote to overturn Mr. Gentry's ruling.

Mr. Gentry recognized Emily Evans, who swiftly turned the balance of her time over to Mr. Whitmore in order to proceed with his amendment, which ended up being tabled by the Council. After the vote to kill that amendment, Mr. Gentry paused and looked at the vote totals with what looked like an air of frustration. Then re-calling the preceding challenges to his management of the meeting, he took aim at Ms. Evans, who had voted against Mr. Whitmore's amendment: "Say what you will about me, but I think it is just cruel to give the guy a chance and then vote against [his amendment]."